This article was originally published in and for Women in Foreign Policy newsletter, 9 November 2018.

I received a notification on my phone from CNN. Headline: “Women accuse Morgan Freeman of inappropriate behaviour, harassment”. I already knew the content of the article I was about to read. My first reaction was a long sigh expressing a mix of despair and tiredness. But not because of what you think.

My exasperation did not come from the fact that the article, of that I was certain, would be another apparition of this certain je-ne-sais-quoi that gives some men the illusion that they can dispose of women’s bodies as they please. But rather from the speed at which conclusions would be jumped to, the dark places from where theories would emerge, the passive-aggressive injunctions that would soon enough invite me to join the movement of cancellation on the actor and ultimately, a #MeToo. I was already tired of it. That thought, I still had not opened the article. It is obvious now that I did not know its content, but just assumed it. My opinion on the case was made before I even checked the facts. Morgan Freeman? Na, it must have been fake news.

I checked my Twitter’s feed, he was trending. I found myself determined not to follow this movement of public crucifixion of someone accused of having done something without proofs being legitimately approved yet, and so was Twitter. Ladies and gentlemen, tables have turned. The platform allowing the public to smash down a celebrity without letting him (cause it’s always a he) the possibility to stand a defence is no longer available. People are not buying it anymore. They want proofs, records, photos, witnesses. And so did I, only because I craved justice. I therefore prepared myself to thoroughly weight the value of whatever was reported in the article as factual and opened the notification. My opinion on the case, as you may imagine, changed when I checked the facts. But Twitter’s did not.

And that’s where I get to ask what exactly it is that we want. I fear the intellectual challenge of getting away from our emotions in order to analyse the elements of time and space that constitute these allegations will no longer be welcomed. Last December, the reporter Alia E. Dastagir recalled the facility for certain to distrust women’s voice and it resonates dangerously here. I fear that moment when the truth will no longer be admitted, despite being proven, because our ability to pay serious attention to this type of behaviour and hold accountable the accused will expire. After all, aren’t male all the same? If we can draw statistics showing the probability for a woman to be victim of sexual abuse in the course of her life, why should we expect movie stars and politicians not to be the responsible?

Well, because we made them movie stars and politicians. The public sphere is a rotten space because it is built for and financed by us. Although far from being the least, this extent alone is enough to keep our guard up. So Twitter, you wanted facts. Here, you have them. Now, let’s all together be satisfied when truth appears under the sun.

Our exasperation towards this kind of news, also linked to our wish for them to simply stop from appearing to us on a daily basis, should not distract us from the gravity of this type of scandal to which we are unfortunately becoming immune to. Our refusal to be dragged under a set of emotional thoughts designed to, according to some, prevent us from reasoning is worthy. But it is very important not to replace it by its opposite: the refusal to acknowledge factual presentations of events designed to help us evaluating situations for what they are. There is a fine line here that we must constantly be seeking for.